I picked up the new Shockwave figure from the Dark of the Moon line and as cool as I dig his design in the new movie, a Shockwave toy just isn't the same without the light up feature and so I went to work.

First I gave him a realistic repaint, using Testors Model Masters paints I painted him using layers of flat black, silver, and using the paint wipe method using flat black over the bulk of his body so it would seep into the cracks and lining of his body helping to bring out the detail in his sculpt. I also used layers of gray, white, and brown on the tank treads to dirty them up some, because there's no way those tank treads would be clean. I painted his weapons as well, and painted small details into his body just to make him more realistic looking.

Next I took a red LED and fit it into Shockwave's head and connected everything, including the battery compartment so it wouldn't interfere with his articulation or transformation.

He's still fully transformable and as a bonus I modified him so he has a third transformation, that of a giant cannon. I thought it would be cool to have him transform into something that was at least a little reminiscent of the original toy which transformed into that giant cannon.

Now Shockwave is fully ready to take down any Autobots that stand in his way all to serve the mighty Megatron!